Patent troll venue abuse must stop in the Eastern District of Texas

Imagine you are a patent troll, who asserts bad-quality patents or ones that don't cover what you claim. You count on defendants paying you off to avoid high legal defense costs. All you need is to avoid being dismissed quickly. Unfortunately for you, the Supreme Court has now made it easier to dismiss frivolous patent lawsuits. What do you do? For too many trolls, the answer has been to file suit in the Eastern District of Texas. This district has been by far the top venue for patent litigation. From April-June 2015, more patent cases were filed in the Eastern District than in all other federal courts combined. One judge, Judge Rodney Gilstrap, presides over about 17 percent of all patent cases in the United States. Judge Gilstrap recently eliminated almost 170 cases filed by patent troll eDekka — but that's only about 10 percent of his caseload. The Eastern District as a whole has about 30 percent of all patent cases.